The Newsletter of Crawford Broadcasting Company Corporate Engineering

MARCH 2020 • VOLUME 30 • ISSUE 3 • W.C. ALEXANDER, CPBE, AMD, DRB EDITOR

Projects! Still, anything can happen. As the first quarter of what is no longer the During my years in the Dallas/Ft. Worth new year winds down, we press forward with a market, on two occasions, airplanes flew into number of big projects around the company, and we radio/TV towers. I was working at KERA-TV in are working on the 1979 and on my way to continuation of a project we work at the Cedar Hill started last year. I mentioned transmitter site one foggy most of these in last month’s morning when I saw column, but in case you something odd in the grassy missed it… median of Hwy. 67 right in The continuation front of the 1,549-foot project I mentioned is an off- tower. As I drove past, I site auxiliary for WPWX remember thinking that it Power92 in Chicago. I have looked like an airplane for a long time had concerns wing! Turns out it was an about recovery should the airplane wing! A plane had worst happen and the flown into one of the guy WPWX tower come down or wires in the fog and crashed, we sustain some other killing all aboard. One wing devastating calamity at the Our Lansing, Illinois tower, home to WSRB and was severed by the huge guy Burnham transmitter site. soon, the WPWX off-site auxiliary. cable and came to rest out on This was brought the highway. The tower did home more than a decade ago when a non- not come down, but had the impact occurred on commercial station on an adjacent channel in Joliet, tower steel instead of a guy wire, or if the guy had Illinois lost its tower in an ice storm. That tower fell been severed, it certainly could have. because the guy anchor steel had corroded below the Then a few years later, in January of 1987, surface and no one had any idea of its condition. The an F4 Phantom jet out of the Dallas Naval Air Station tower picked up a load of ice, then came the wind, collided with the Hill Tower candelabra a few miles and one (or more) of the anchors gave way. The west, also at the Cedar Hill antenna farm. Thankfully tower came zigzagging to the ground, taking the the aircrew ejected safely, but there was significant station off the air for days while they scrambled to damage done to one arm of the candelabra, forcing find a temporary site. two low-band TV stations and several FMs to aux Our own WPWX shouldn’t face such an antennas on the tower. issue with anchor steel. When we built the tower in It was that hit on the Hill Tower that woke a 1989, I knew that we had a natural gas pipeline lot of folks up to the need for an off-site auxiliary. running along the north side of the property, and that Had the tower come down, a lot of FMs and a lot of pipeline employs cathodic protection. To keep the TVs would have been dead in the water. Shortly anchor steel from becoming sacrificial, we encased it thereafter, we began seeing competing stations in concrete all the way to the surface. working together to put auxiliary facilities on their

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The Local Oscillator March 2020 competitors’ towers. Of course we all got a reminder Poole has it stashed in a self-storage warehouse of this in a big way following 9/11, when a bunch of nearby until Slatercom’s installation crew can get it stations lost their sites in NYC. installed on the tower. That should take place this And throughout the years of my career, I month. have read time and again of towers coming down The lights on that unpainted tower have because of rigging errors, hardware failures, been a big pain in the backside since we’ve owned it. tornados, and even as a result of a tractor mowing the We nursed along the original strobe system for antenna field snagging a guy wire. Indeed, anything several years after we bought the station, but its can happen at just about any time. controller was obsolete and no longer supported – if I While it’s true that just about any radio recall correctly, the manufacturer was long out of station can be severely impacted by the loss of a business by that time. In 2007, we replaced that tower, in our company, WPWX is unique. It is in a system with a new Xenon system from TWR highly competitive situation in the #3 market. If the Lighting, thinking that would solve our issues and station were to go dark, all the listeners would hit the make it trouble free, and that was true for a short button for a competitor’s station, and getting them to while. But within a year or two, we began having come back after weeks or months off the air would be trouble, and we have struggled with that system for a herculean task. It is with that in mind that we began the past 13 years. The tower has been under NOTAM thinking about an offsite aux for that station several for one issue or other for much of that time. We have years ago, and in the past year, with Chicago probably spent over $100,000 in tower climbs alone engineering manager Rick Sewell driving the train, through the years trying to keep the system working. we began working toward that end in earnest. The new Dialight LED strobe system I recently filed an application for the includes all new wiring plus flash heads and WPWX offsite auxiliary, and we’re awaiting grant. controller, and it will be installed by a crew that When we get that, we’ll be able to operate with 17 specializes in such systems. And it will be backed by kW ERP from our Lansing tower site, just a few our friends at Slatercom. I am confident that our miles south of the main WPWX site. That should get tower light issues will be resolved with this new us core market coverage. Until we get that grant and system. Of course, if we take a big lightning hit, all purchase/install the 20 kW transmitter and 2-1/4” bets are off, but so far, we have not had any failures transmission line, we will be limited to 4 kW ERP of similar systems at other stations, so hope springs and emergency-only operation under §73.1680, but at eternal. least we have a place to go if the worst should Also on tap for Birmingham, probably this happen. month, is the installation of a new Nautel NX50 Also in Chicago, we’re preparing for an transmitter at WXJC(AM). Stephen and his crew omnibus studio project, replacing the now 15-year- have been preparing for that for some time now, and old Wheatstone bridge router TDM system with a one sticking point has been the electrical work. The new Wheatnet AOIP system. Much of the bidders did not seem to understand the scope of work infrastructure is already Wheatnet AOIP, but not the and they came back with sky-high quotes that control rooms. That will change in the coming included all sorts of things we don’t want or need. To months. But along with that we are enlarging the clarify things, I went to the KLTT transmitter site and WPWX control room and replacing the cabinets in all took photos of the electrical installation there. the control rooms. Over the last month, we finalized Stephen was able to provide that to the bidders, and the design and equipment list and will be placing hopefully we will shortly have much more reasonable orders shortly. We still have to work out construction bids. and cabinet details as well as scheduling. And of course we have to keep playing the hits during the Detroit construction work. We continue to search for a chief engineer We have two projects in the works in for our Detroit market. This is an excellent Birmingham. The new Slatercom-provided Dialight opportunity for the right fully-qualified candidate. strobe system for the 1,330-foot WXJC-FM tower Send anyone interested in applying to me at near Cullman, Alabama has arrived, and Stephen [email protected].

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

The New York Minutes By Brian Cunningham, CBRE Chief Engineer, CBC – Western New York

Hello to all from Western New York! In Next, I checked the output of the IPA into what usually is a quiet month, February turned out to my load through my Bird wattmeter, and found the be anything but normal. Between Rochester and IPA to be in perfect working order. So I knew the Buffalo, at times it seemed problem was not in the grid as if the wheels fell off the circuit of the transmitter. I wagon. I was bouncing from then removed the plate one issue to another. I was blocker and found additional hoping to get a lot marked corrosion, that similar to off my ever present to-do what I had just removed list, but transmitter issues, from the front PA door, internet (PSD) problems and along with corrosion on the satellite reception failures air stack and the anode clip kept me from getting to attached to the plate cap of those items that have been the 4CX15000A tube! After back shelved for awhile. thoroughly cleaning all of Last month, I these components, the reported on an issue I transmitter came up with discovered with the WDCX- normal readings across the FM Continental auxiliary transmitter, specifically board! corrosion around the front panel of the PA cavity. On I have contacted our HVAC contractor to Monday, February 3rd, with Dremel tool in hand, I come out and give us an estimate on re-configuring set out to get the corrosion cleaned from that area and the exhaust stack of the transmitter. Basically, I want around the finger stock lining the inside of the cavity to remove the bottom 10 inches of ductwork and door. This work went very well. I was able to get all replace it with a suitable hood, which will allow the of the corrosion removed using a wire brush at very inside air to circulate within the cavity instead of the low speed, following up with some very fine cold outside air. I will also add a 1-inch non- sandpaper. restrictive air filter over the exhaust port of the Once completed, I got everything buttoned transmitter to help keep any airborne dust/dirt out of up and went to place the transmitter on-air to ensure the transmitter. A complete and thorough inspection that there was no more arcing in the PA cavity. I is in order to ensure that there are no other areas pushed the plate on button after the filaments had where corrosion could cause an interruption of ample warm-up time. The plate voltage pinned with service if called upon. This work will be moved to no current, and the IPA indicated massive reflected the top of my to-do list. power. As it was already late in the day and I was Continuing on with transmitter issues, in tired, I elected to come back later after I had rested Rochester at WLGZ-FM, the final tube emissions and a fresh mind to troubleshoot this new issue. were beginning to drop off, so a new National tube The next day, I returned to investigate this was ordered to replace the failing tube. On Sunday new problem. The final tube in this transmitter was night the 16th, I shut the station’s analog signal down installed back in 2016, and it was a new tube then. to change the tube out and perform a thorough Because it had very few hours on it, I did not suspect cleaning and inspection. The tube replacement went a tube failure. I started by checking the drive from the very well with no issues to note. The tube socket was exciter to the input of the solid-state IPA and found it in excellent condition, no bent finger-stock or to be satisfactory. I then removed the BNC accumulated dirt, except for the bottom of the PA connection from the input of the grid circuit and cavity. A thorough vacuuming was performed along plugged the exciter directly into the transmitter, with cleaning of the PA cavity followed up by a bypassing the IPA, with the same results as before ‒ complete wipe-down with denatured alcohol to plate voltage and no current. 3

The Local Oscillator March 2020 remove any residual moisture from the cleaning satellite dish is located), I found the receiver to be in spray. ‘carrier searching’ mode. I rebooted the receiver and The tuning went very well, or so I thought. everything came back to normal with an EbNo of Two days after the new tube installation, the 11.4. transmitter started shutting down with screen After an hour or so, the receiver returned to overloads. I returned on Tuesday the 18th and found the carrier searching mode, so I performed a hard the transmitter to be out of tune! The tuning was very reboot of the system. After the hard reboot, the near the max on the raise side of the tuning control, receiver came back up and looked normal in all meaning the shelf needed to be raised. After a couple aspects, but it was not too long after that it faulted out of adjustments, I was able to find the ‘sweet spot’ for again with the same symptoms as before. I brought the loading/tuning controls. Once I adjusted the PA my spare receiver with me to Rochester, just in case I grid tuning and grid coupling for minimum reflected found a receiver problem, so I swapped it out and that on the IPA, all readings were very near factory took care of the issue. I am not certain that Wegener settings. is still supporting the Unity 4000 receivers, so I guess I honestly do not know how I could have a call needs to be made to inquire if we can have the missed this during the initial tuning. I did not notice defective unit repaired. that I was reaching the upper limit on the tuning Another issue in Buffalo this past month control; I never saw the limit LED light up! With was the delivery of PSD data for HD-1, HD-2 and solid-state transmitters quickly becoming the norm at RBDS to the transmitter site. The data would hang up most stations, and most of the tube-type transmitters at times, or be sporadic in displaying the proper data. being demoted to backup service, we don’t get many Armed with my laptop, I went out to the transmitter chances to work on these, and many of the tricks of site and using port peeker, found that more than half the trade we learned over the years are being of the data sent was not being received. We forgotten. experienced this same issue some time ago, and the I have numerous maintenance notes passed problem was found to lie with our internet provider. on to me by my late friend Dave Hultsman and his We had recently experienced some high fellow Continental engineer, Steve Hasskamp. Many winds and power outages at the transmitter site, and I of these maintenance procedures go far beyond those assumed that this is probably the culprit. The ISP, found in the equipment manuals. They have been Spectrum, came out and replaced the terminal at the compiled after many years of servicing and finding pole at the street level and resolved the issue. better and easier ways to make repairs or insure We still will randomly miss a data change proper operation for a long period of time. It certainly on the HD-2, and I suspect that may be caused by the wouldn’t hurt to pull these white papers out router/firewall at the transmitter site. Somewhere in occasionally and look them over to keep these my shop area I have a spare Linksys router, so I will procedures in the back of my mind, if only I could program it with the necessary port numbers and IP remember where I put them! addresses to see if that clears up the HD-2 PSD Continuing on in Rochester, Earl Schillinger issues. More on my findings next month. reported on an issue with our C-Band satellite system That about wraps up another month here in on Friday the 21st. Overnight recordings were not the great northeast, and until we meet again here in being received along with daily live programming the pages of The Local Oscillator, be well, and happy received over Ambassador’s SR-2 channel. When I engineering! arrived at the WLGZ transmitter site (where the

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

News from the South by Stephen Poole, CBRE, AMD Chief Engineer, CBC–Alabama

Did I mention the weather last time? I’m The NX50: Preparation sure I did. The rain continues. It rained again today. Tarrant is where 850 AM’s transmitter lives, The rivers and creeks are over their banks, the ground and (amongst running for other things), I’ve been is saturated and there is mold and spending some time there making mildew growing in places that I sure we’re ready for the new never noticed before. Ugly, ugly. Nautel NX50. It’s said that as Needless to say (but I’m you get older, you start gonna say it anyway… you knew reminiscing and sharing stories I would), this has kind of with everyone within earshot. hampered a lot of our work in “Did I ever tell you about the February. We’ve been running to time ...?” our transmitter sites after every Well, here’s a re- major storm just to make sure memory: back in 1999, while we that no big damage has occurred. were rebuilding 850 AM’s Fortunately, so far, we’ve been facility, one of the guys with the blessed ‒ though I did notice the construction crew stared at the other day that some of the siding transmitters and phasor, then on the other side of that old shook his head while the crew building at 1260 AM has come loose. It’s always painstakingly built a wall over and around the something. equipment. He looked at me with a knowing grin. The ground at Tarrant, where I’ve been “What are you going to do if you ever have to replace spending a good bit of time to prepare things for the this stuff?” NX50’s arrival, has really become smushy. Going I just shrugged and said, “hire you to build a into the site requires that I walk through the mud to new wall.” I pointed out to him that the equipment ‒ the gate, unlock it, and install the brick that we keep a Nautel XL60, a Nautel ND2.5, a Kintronic phasor, handy to prevent it from drifting closed. Then I head and a rack full of monitors and remote control stuff ‒ back to the Jeep, line myself up while still on the cost many times what the building did. I’ll never paved road, and gun it through the gate so that I don’t forget the look on his face. But then again, being bog down in the mud. There are large areas of that charitable, this guy wasn’t the brightest light I’d ever 40-acre tower field that I stay well away from, too. met, so there you go. I’ve had to call for a tow out there several times. That memory came back to me as I was knocking out sheet rock for the new NX50. We’re going to remove the little ND5 (see Figure 2), then re-frame around the new transmitter. With judicious use of molding, putty and paint, we can make it look good. No doubt if we were replacing more than a single transmitter, we’d probably have called in a construction crew to do the work. But we’re capable of hanging a little “rock.” I will say that I probably should have asked Jack or Todd to help with some of the work. All of the usual Keystone Kops stuff happened while I was working: for example, I’d carefully place my big level on the wall to get a straight line precisely the correct distance off the floor, only to discover that the Figure 1 - I got a little worried when I saw this guy mechanical pencil was out of lead. Take everything out of I-65 one day. down, go get another pencil (and confirm that it will make a line first), then start over. I had a laser level, but the old sheet rock is painted a very light yellow 5

The Local Oscillator March 2020

A New Transformer, Too When I met the first electrician at the 850 AM site in mid-January, I happened to notice that the big pad-mounted utility transformer out front was leaking oil. This is an emphatically un-good thing; if that transformer loses all its oil, you will, in short order, lose the transformer. It’ll overheat and the windings will short. The Alabama Bubba in me will admit that it’d probably be spectacular ‒ I’d probably even wear my NAPA hat turned around backwards and yell, “yee-haw!” ‒ but, well, you know. We don’t want to be off the air and stuff, so we called Alabama Power.

Figure 2 - Installing a hole for the transmitter installation. color, and with the lights on in the building, it was too hard to see the line. Thus the 48-inch plain-Jane builder’s level with a straight edge. The electrical is another thing. We’ll need to mount a fused disconnect and Nautel’s interlock switch, with conduit as needed. It’s really not that big of a job. We have received one quote, but it was considerably higher than we thought it should be. I’ve been waiting for days for another electrician to come look at the job, but I decided today I’d have to write him off and call someone else. He hasn’t been Figure 3 - Not good. Not good at all. returning my calls. Maybe he thinks my job is too small to worry with. They sent a bunch of trucks and a big crew Anyway. Cutting out the sheet rock today out to replace the transformer ... but there was a with a reciprocal saw, of course white dust and chips problem: they had been given a 240V/108V unit for the replacement, and we have a 480V/277V service. flew everywhere. I had covered the top of the ND2.5 So, after tearing up the muddy ground and wallering with plastic (you can see it in Figure 2 if you look closely), but I knew I’d still need to vacuum around for a while, they announced that they’d have everything afterwards. First, I discovered that the to leave and order the correct transformer. We’re still shop vac needed a new filter. I put one in it. Then, waiting as I write this, but supposedly, the job will be when I fired up the vac and started cleaning, a fine, done before the end of February. We’ll see. white dust blew out of the exhaust and hung in the Cullman Tower Lights air. Fine dust is death on a heatsink, so I stopped vacuuming, opened the front door, turned on the We slowly creep forward on this job as well. ceiling exhaust fan ... and it wouldn’t come on. Yay! 101.1 FM has been under a NOTAM for years, I finally settled on putting one of my old coats over primarily because the old strobe flash system kept the shop vac and doing it a little at a time to keep the breaking, and we were unable to keep it working reliably. Even though it was definitely an expense we dust down. Todd has called a heating/air company to didn’t want, we bit the bullet and ordered a come look at that vent fan. As Cris says, it’s always something. And replacement LED system for installation this year. like I said, Keystone Kops. The hope, as I write this, is that I’ll be able to tell you about it next month ‒ or certainly no later 6

The Local Oscillator March 2020 than April. We’ll need for the constant rain to let up for a few days in a row, but the tower crew already has their winch on site, ready to go. We have received all of the lights, and they’re in storage nearby, waiting to be hung on the tower. We have high hopes for this system. Frankly, I’m glad to see xenon strobes go the way of the dinosaurs, because they’re temperamental, operate at ridiculously high voltage (on a tower!) (up in the air and bad weather!) and are very expensive to maintain. I’m not naive enough to believe all of the sales hype about the LED systems ‒ “install it and you’re golden for years and years!” ‒ but I do believe that it’ll be much more reliable that the strobes.

Odds and Ends Figure 4 - Not saying this is Alabama, but ... just On the personal front, I bought a new Acer sayin’. laptop for my birthday. It came with a super-fast AMD Ryzen processor and a solid-state hard drive. and who constantly whined about the lack of chicken When I booted into it for the first time, I was heads on his guitars and amplifiers. astonished at how quickly it reached the desktop. It At the studios, Todd and Jack have done literally took less than 5 seconds. For now, I’m going their usual sterling jobs of putting out the daily fires, to leave Windows 10 on it and use it as my music and they’ve pitched in to check on tower sites after workstation at home. I did increase the RAM to 16 particular severe storms. I’m blessed to have them as Gig, because I didn’t think 4 Gig would be adequate assistants, and I try to make sure that they know that. for editing music and video. I may even buy them lunch. (Maybe.) (We’ll see.) On Todd’s personal front, he already had a That’s about it for this time. Until next 3-D printer; he is now getting into CNC stuff at month, keep praying for this nation! home. He plans to make some genuine chicken-head knobs for Jimmy Parker, who used to work for us,

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

The Chicago Chronicles by Rick Sewell, CSRE, CBNT, AMD Engineering Manager, CBC–Chicago

Last month I went into some detail about our This went very smoothly as the initial tuning was WPWX emergency antenna (and soon to be off-site good and well balanced. I figured that with two auxiliary) project. We have finished what we can, frequencies, there would be some kind of tradeoff and while we have not fully with respect to VSWR at both tested it, we are confident that we frequencies. have a very good and workable However, the ERI facility for this important signal. engineer had the tower crew add There was a lot of work a second tuning slug to the that took place to get this done antenna. The result was a very by our engineering crew. We had clean sweep on both frequencies. to almost completely re-plumb So it was that we saw virtually the transmission lines in the no VSWR on either frequency. I building as we took the RF was very pleased and we can be plumbing network from a single confident that the antenna will patch bay that was connecting perform well. two transmitters and two While we are looking at antennas along with a dummy an ERP of 4 kilowatts right now, load, to a two-switch network. at some point in the future it may The patch bay allowed be possible to expand the us to put each transmitter into the coverage of the site with a dummy load but didn’t allow us change in transmission line and to switch the transmitters from one antenna to the higher power transmitter. The antenna that was other. We needed to do this so that we could move installed has 3-1/8” bays and power divider so it can our main transmitter, which is frequency agile, to the handle way more power than we could put into it auxiliary antenna, which was designed to work on right now. Of course, that will also be a matter of both WSRB’s 106.3 and WPWX’s 92.3 frequencies. fitting it into the current contours so that we stay The other challenge was that we had no way within the station’s circle of protection. in which to add anything to the existing rack at the For now, we have something ready for site and we needed to house a separate audio codec, emergencies that will cover a good portion of the PPM encoder and audio processor. So we purchased station’s important core neighborhoods. I am anxious a short rack for that purpose. to drive the signal when we are able to fully test it. Since we needed to mount the two ERI 1- Once we have this auxiliary site licensed, we will 5/8” coax switches and we didn’t have a lot of light it up and see what we have. My suspicion is that footprint left in the transmitter room, we decided get it will actually cover more territory than we hoped back to my erector set days and use Unistrut to build for, despite the fact that for now it has much lower a cage over the top of the short rack and mount the power than the main facility and is several miles coax switches. This worked out well as a space saver. further south from Chicago. Earlier in February, we had a break in the The one thing I do know is that it will have weather and were able to line up a tower crew at the way better coverage than we would get without it if same time that we had an ERI engineer in to tune the the tower went down at the main site. antenna to the two frequencies as mentioned above.

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

Valley News By Steve Minshall Chief Engineer, KCBC -- Modesto

One of the icons of California is palm trees. just cut them and apply some weed killer. I brought a You expect to see them in landscaping, but not at a battery powered saw and a battery powered drill, cut transmitter site. I recently discovered three little the trees off and then drilled holes in the stumps. I palm trees growing around poured herbicide in the the base of one of our three holes. After a couple of towers at KCBC. weeks, they look very dead. Why three palm Hopefully that is the end of trees would start growing that for a while. around an AM tower is On the NX-50 bewildering to me, but there transmitter, I got a status must be some mechanism alarm, “DPLL unlocked.” I that makes this happen. My had no idea what that meant, best guess is that somehow but the transmitter seemed to birds on the tower have be working fine. Nautel had dropped seeds. me gather some data from How the little palm the Exgine system and trees got there is not really important. What is responded with the suggestion that I re-calibrate the important is to get rid of them before they cause Exgine TCXO with instructions that they provided. damage to the tower foundation, building, ground So far, that seems to have taken care of that status system, and underground conduits. alarm. It is always nice to have all green indicators. I did some research on how to remove them and kill the roots. Not rocket science,

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

The Portland Report by John White, CBRE Chief Engineer, CBC–Portland

The tower upgrade at the water district land mobile applications is the R-56 grounding location continues to move forward. Unfortunately, standard. It’s almost rote that R-56 requires all the detuning was an afterthought. Due to the lack of grounds must be connected to the ground halo. notice of start of the work, Cris Grounding to the halo creates and I both felt that detuning huge problems for detuning and expertise was needed in order to RF induced on communications get the detuning process back on coax lines. track. The extended tower is 180 A properly skirted and feet tall and a much larger cross detuned tower is show in Figure section as shown in Figure 1 2. In this configuration, the below. tower and skirt current (in blue) Without notice, cancel each other. The coax discussions that could and should cables to antennas on the tower have happened prior to the attach below the detuning skirt beginning of construction didn’t and are isolated from any AM take place. Fortunatelyn we discovered the broadcast current induced in the tower. construction relatively early and were able to raise Any other configuration, including the halo the issue. The tower upgrade proponent agreed to ground, will induce current into the communications call in Hatfield & Dawson to produce a detuning coax cables. plan. Ben Dawson has expertise at the Water District At press time, we appear to have a detuning site which he brings to the table. plan in place that will produce the desired result. So One constant battle with towers used for far, so good.

Figure 1 - The new 180-foot Water Figure 2 - A properly skirted and District tower. detuned tower.

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

Rocky Mountain Ramblings The Denver Report by Amanda Hopp, CBRE Chief Engineer, CBC - Denver

Barn Work I also used the tractor to remove a large The month started with me dragging my stump that had been located at the back door of the always willing husband to KLZ to do work on the barn for years. While it wasn’t in the way, it was barn. The building had one ugly, and well, I was bored, so small incandescent light at the why not use the nice tractor we top that just didn’t do much of have to remove it? anything to dispel the gloom. It took several hours to We rented a boom lift get the work done. I am very and drove it to the site. We had happy with the brightness of the already purchased six four-foot barn now, and with it being LED lights to hang in there. Of cleaned up inside, it looks course, no good plan goes amazing! without issues. The next step, on a The first issue we warmer day, will be for me to encountered was the control box use our tractor and remove about that was supposed to be on the four inches of material from the boom itself was not given to us. Instead of driving dirt floor, then bring in some recycled asphalt back to the Home Depot (a one-hour round trip) and followed by a compactor to get it really looking good wasting time, Jordon decided to do the work from the in that barn. boom while I manned the controls below.

My husband Jordon installing an LED light fixture in the KLZ barn.

Since there was plenty of time of standing Can't beat a clean, well-lighted space to work on around, I decided to clean the barn, something which tractor, brush hog and backhoe! Soon we'll have has not been done since the Kennedy administration. recycled asphalt instead of dirt on the floor. I brought a broom out and began sweeping the concrete and the inside walls of the barn. I wanted After the barn work, we decided to go ahead all cobwebs removed along with and dirt, mouse and do some work on the trees. I had found the poop and anything else that was there. It was quite camera on the building couldn’t see the barn clearly the project. because of a couple trees that had grown up in the way. We cut them down and move them and then

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The Local Oscillator March 2020 also did some limbing of the tree that hangs over the the sources and all the destinations. Instead of road so our cars don’t get scraped every time we having to go search a crosspoint in order to be able to drive by. All that really made a big difference in the right click and view meter, I can go to this tab and camera view. We can now see the entire barn without just select what I want to listen to. If I want to make having to wonder what is going on behind that area sure my audio server does indeed have audio, I can that’s covered up. select the ASERV, and it brings up the meters so I I do hope March brings some warmer days. can see what channels have audio. It’s a quick way Especially since winter finally came to Colorado and to determine if an off-air issue has something to do refuses to let up. I understand we need the moisture, with Wheatnet, NexGen or something else, because and I get that it is technically still winter. I also get obviously, if Wheatnet is getting audio, then the issue that we were spoiled with a beautiful January. Even will most likely be somewhere else. I also have no so, I am ready for winter to be over. I want the rain doubt there will be many more uses for these meters. and warmth to come back so that things green up and the outdoor activities I enjoy so much can resume. Break-In I woke up the morning of February 25 at my Wheatstone Training usual 5:00 AM time. Typically, in the mornings I get Jay Tyler from Wheatstone was in town up, my phone remains on Do Not Disturb until 5:15, doing various site visits and decided that this year, he but I will still check it to be sure all is right with the would do a day of training. It was a small group, world. I saw that Security Central had called at which was great. And it was very informative. He 4:56AM. I looked at the email I received from the brought in Robert Ferguson, who many of you who system and saw it said KLZ Zone 2 and 3. That use their products know, is one of their great tech would be the garage door and the back door. Being support guys. He trained us on the new Wheatnet half asleep, I assumed it was the wind. I knew they Navigator. They have made some amazing were forecasting some extreme wind for that day. improvements over the program and wanted to let us A few minutes later I was upstairs finishing know how to use it all. up my morning devotional and it hit me, the email said KLTT, not KLZ! OH NO! Zone 2 and 3 are back door and motion in that back room. This was a legit alarm. I immediately checked the cameras. The front gate looked good. I got on the PTZ and moved it to look at the back door and sure enough I was staring at the deadbolt. Somehow had clearly pried the door open. I called Security Central and they confirmed they already dispatched police. They relayed my info to the responding sheriff’s office and I called my dad. We decided he’d come to me since my house was on the way and we’d carpool to the transmitter site. Thankfully, the station was on air. That means they didn’t take transmission line or anything critical. When we arrived, we had three deputies waiting. They had already gotten the key from the The meters tab of the new Wheatstone Navigator. Knox box on the gate and cleared the building. Some of the things we kind of knew about We went in and could see in the front room but with the training we could see it in action and a box and packing material on the ground and the envision ways of using it ourselves. In Denver, we storage cabinet doors open. We went to the back and are still a ways off from being able to fully use the both our cabinets had their doors open. Our new software but, as we upgrade locations over the extension ladder had been moved and the dehydrator coming years to be fully Wheatnet-based, we will was lying on the floor, damaged but still running. find more and more ways to better utilize the updated With the police there, I got on the security software. DVR but didn’t see anything. Of course I felt rushed I won’t go into detail of all the new features, to find something, but couldn’t. but one that I am most excited about and know I will We determined that the only thing stolen use more, is the meter tab. It brings up a list of all was the spare RF contactor that was located in the 12

The Local Oscillator March 2020 box that was now on the floor. A sucky thing to get I saw on camera when he turned his car on, stolen, but in the grand scheme of things, I will take but since the camera toured, it was just for a few it. seconds. This made us realize some vulnerabilities The deputies gave us the report number so with our system. We are looking into getting two we could contact them if we did find anything else more cameras to go with our system to look at the missing or on video. Keith and my dad went to work front and back doors, then another camera to look at on the back door. It was destroyed, so they needed to the gate on the south side of the canal. And maybe a find a way to secure it until we could get someone camera or two inside the building so that if someone out to replace it. does get in, they are on camera. My job was to go through the video. One I was also able to get a door company out thing I know for sure was the alarm was at 4:56 AM. who temporarily fixed the door. I am still waiting to The deputies kept telling me that these companies hear back from them on a new door (keep in mind I wait 15-20 minutes before they call the person on am writing this the day after this all occurred). My file. I had to explain, not this company! I could see prayer is they will be able to get things fixed and we on my app the alarm was at 4:56, and before that can go about our day to day without worry of another minute was up, they had already called me. break in. Oddly enough, this site was almost broken We figured out they came in on the south into back in 2012 I think. I got an early morning call side of the canal at the gate there. Keith found the and someone had busted our lockbox off the front lock cut. So I had to think a bit, if I were a thieving door, gotten the key, gone around back and actually scumbag, how long would it take for me to pull up, ended up breaking the key off in the deadbolt, cut a lock, drive in and then cross the frozen canal. making it so they could not get in. It’s pitch black out there. Of all the sites to get broken into, I always I started the video about 4:40 AM and figured KLZ was the one to have the most chance. watched it sped up. At 4:48 AM, I could clearly see The area is not the best. We’ve had numerous crimes someone turn into that drive. Keep in mind, we don’t in the townhomes across the street, including a have a camera that actually looks over at that gate. deputy getting killed and a body being found encased The PTZ can’t see it and the one that looks at our in concrete in someone’s basement. It seems each front gate can’t see it. But I could see the headlights month there are a handful of stories that include the turn in. Out there is just one road, Piccadilly, that area, and they aren’t good ones. But for whatever runs north/south. The closest east/west road is just to reason, this site has remained free of most crime. the north of us. These lights turning came from the The site that is in a remote area is the target. south. No road over there. I understand why it is a good target, but still, it seems So I went to the PTZ camera and prayed it like a bit of a drive to do crime. There aren’t any caught something. It is set to tour. It goes to all four bigger neighborhoods for quite a distance from us. towers and then the gate behind our building. At Just some houses here and there, and we have gotten 4:50, I saw the vehicle and part of the person’s face. to know those neighbors some and I have no doubt it Of course the IR pictures aren’t great and I honestly wasn’t any of them. Only time will tell if the police don’t know if the police will be able to do anything are able to figure out who it was and make an arrest. with it. But I got the guy! He drove up, looked and then drove up a bit further. Coming Up My guess is, this person had planned this. I pray that March will be less eventful in the We have a barbed wire fence that goes alongside the crime department. If it warms up, I plan on doing canal to try and direct the horses to cross at certain some of the remaining barn work. I also plan on points. There is still quite a bit of water in the canal going over all three sites that we have a camera too, some frozen, some not. So whoever this was system at and really think through them. I know any knew where to park and walk across without making system will have vulnerabilities, but I want to try and a mess. What this idiot didn’t know was there’s make so we have very few. nothing to take in our building. Something else that I am working on it my He got away with an RF contactor, and as FAA Part 107 license. Many of our engineers in we later found out, the Dewalt screw stick (without various markets got there’s so they can fly drones to charger) and drill bits. Odd things to take but okay. inspect towers. I never got mine because my dad had He left the dehydrator, perhaps it was too heavy, his, so why do I need it? Him being back in the maybe he got spooked, or he just wanted to cause hospital late last year made me realize that I need to some damage. 13

The Local Oscillator March 2020 be able to do the work if it is needed. If he is laid up the material, I’ll go see if I can pass the test. I again for any reason, it falls on me. absolutely hate tests and do not do well, never have. Not only that, but I have been bugging my So it’ll be interesting to see how I do. I figure the husband and a friend to get their Extra Class amateur more prepared I am, the better the chances. I guess radio license. Both have General Class but not Extra. you’ll have to wait until the next edition to see if I am I figured if I am going to bug them to do that, I still studying or not! should at least do something like this and quit putting Well, that about covers it for this issue. See it off. I don’t know if I will test in March, but I will ya next time! at least be studying, and once I feel comfortable with

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The Local Oscillator March 2020

KBRT • Costa Mesa - Los Angeles, CA WCHB • Royal Oak - Detroit, MI 740 kHz/100.7 MHz, 50 kW-D/0.2 kW-N, DA-1 1340 kHz/96.7 MHz, 1 kW-U, DA-D KNSN • San Diego, CA WRDT • Monroe - Detroit, MI 1240 kHz/103.3 MHz, 550W-U 560 kHz, 500 W-D/14 W-N, DA-D KCBC • Manteca - San Francisco, CA WMUZ-FM • Detroit, MI 770 kHz/94.7 MHz, 50 kW-D/4.3 kW-N, DA-2 103.5 MHz, 50 kW/150m AAT KKPZ • Portland, OR WMUZ • Taylor - Detroit, MI 1330 kHz/97.5 MHz, 5 kW-U, DA-1 1200 kHz, 50 kW-D/15 kW-N, DA-2 KLZ • Denver, CO WPWX • Hammond - Chicago, IL 560 kHz/100.3 MHz, 5 kW-U, DA-1 92.3 MHz, 50 kW/150m AAT KLDC • Brighton - Denver, CO WSRB • Lansing - Chicago, IL 1220 kHz/95.3 MHz, 660 W-D/11 W-N, ND 106.3 MHz, 4.1 kW/120m AAT KLTT • Commerce City - Denver, CO WYRB • Genoa - Rockford, IL 670 kHz/95.1 MHz, 50 kW-D/1.4 kW-N, DA-2 106.3 MHz, 3.8 kW/126m AAT KLVZ • Denver, CO WYCA • Crete - Chicago, IL 810 kHz/94.3 MHz, 2.2 kW-D/430 W-N, DA-2 102.3 MHz, 1.05 kW/150m AAT WDCX • Rochester, NY WYDE • Birmingham, AL 970 kHz, 107.1 MHz, 5 kW-D/2.5 kW-N, DA-2 1260 kHz/95.3 MHz, 5 kW-D/41W-N, ND WDCX-FM • Buffalo, NY WXJC-FM • Cullman - Birmingham, AL 99.5 MHz, 110 kW/195m AAT 101.1 MHz, 100 kW/410m AAT WDCZ • Buffalo, NY WXJC • Birmingham, AL 970 kHz, 5 kW-U, DA-1 850 kHz/96.9 MHz, 50 kW-D/1 kW-N, DA-2 WDJC-FM • Birmingham, AL WYDE-FM • Cordova-Birmingham, AL 93.7 MHz, 100 kW/307m AAT 92.5 MHz, 2.2 kW/167m AAT

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